Home & Garden Magazine 2017

You might say this issue of Home & Garden is a bit of a retrospective. As our story on midcentury modern design explains, everybody seems to be in the mood to look back right now, and who are we to stand in the way of reverse progress? So not only are we building 1950s-inspired houses for our birds (let me explain … no, there is too much, let me sum up … actually just go to page 21), but we’ve decided to embrace all of this backward-facing head on.

For our opening gardening story of the issue, we’ve gone all the way back to step one: seeds. Renee’s Garden is a Felton-based company whose seeds can now be found in nurseries throughout the country, and you might wonder what the secret of their success is … until you meet founder Renee Shepherd. Then you won’t have any doubt. Shepherd is as fascinating a figure as we’ve had the opportunity to cover on the local gardening scene, and we could read her insights into planting trends, local microclimates and purple vegetables all day long.

But we wouldn’t want to leave out those green thumbs who are embracing the current movement to get back to the outdoors—indoors. We love the way they’re transforming bungalows into “jungalows,” and our story on it will give you an idea of how to start your own urban jungle.

Finally, we’re taking a look back at the history of the UCSC Farm and Garden, one of the area’s most innovative agricultural institutions, and getting the story straight from longtime master gardener Orin Martin.

We had fun putting this issue together, and we hope you dig it!

STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR

Read the articles online. (You will be redirected to our lifestyle site SantaCruz.com.)